Kate Wells, Research Officer, Money and Mental Health; Chris Lees, Senior Research Officer, Money and Mental Health

This report explores how people with mental health problems disclose their support needs to essential service providers, and the barriers they face in doing so. It shows that many people are missing out on vital support from providers such as banks, energy firms and water companies because there is no simple, consistent way to share their needs across multiple services. 

The research finds that disclosure rates remain low, despite strong public appetite for a safer and easier way to share support needs. It makes the case for a ‘Share Once’ system which would allow people to disclose their needs once and access support across essential services, while ensuring strong safeguards around consent, control and transparency.

• People with mental health problems face significant practical and emotional barriers to disclosing their support needs to essential service providers, and are often required to repeat this process across multiple companies.
• Disclosure rates are very low: just 14% of people with mental health problems have told their financial services provider about their condition, and only 12% have done so with their energy provider.
• Support for a ‘Share Once’ system is high. Nearly half (46%) of the general public said they would be likely to use a service that shares their needs across providers, rising to 53% among people with recent experience of mental health problems.
• However, the research also highlights concerns among people with mental health problems about data control and the risk that information could be used to limit access to products such as credit or insurance. Eight in ten people with recent experience of mental health problems were concerned about not having control over what information is shared. 

• The Department for Business and Trade should restart plans for a ‘Share Once Support Register’ covering essential services sectors, including energy, water, telecoms, and, in time, financial services. 
• Regulators should work together with consumer groups, industry and people with lived experience of mental health problems to align support needs, terminology and approaches across sectors, so information can be shared in a way that is clear, consistent and safe.
• Government departments and regulators should put in place a common framework of rules, standards and guidance for sharing support needs across essential services, working with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure strong safeguards, transparency, and trust. 
• Essential service providers should be required to help people share their support needs, while also ensuring that people who do not want to use a Share Once system can still access support.
• A clear redress mechanism, such as a data ombudsman, should be introduced to protect people if their data is misused or if systems fail to follow the rules.

Read the full report here.

There are three further Appendices to this report: 

• Appendix 1: Implementing our principles for the sharing of support needs across essential services
• Appendix 2: Spotlight on the ideas sprint
• Appendix 3: Methodology

This report was supported by the Aviva Foundation. It represents the research and views solely of the authors and of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.